Borgia Advances to District Title Game With Win Over St. Clair

Borgia's Ben Kang moves the ball past St. Clair's Austin Wells during the semifinals of the Class 2 District 9 Soccer Tournament Monday at Borgia. The Knights won the game, 10-0.

Borgia scored six goals in the first half and never looked back in a 10-0 soccer victory Monday over St. Clair.

The win for the Knights came in the semifinals of the Class 2 District 9 Tournament at Borgia.

“Districts are always a pressure challenge,” said Borgia Head Coach Grant Kang. “We went into the game a bit nervous. Our initial goal was to keep our focus and composure.”

Fifth-seeded St. Clair (8-16) advanced to the semifinals with a 2-1 overtime win Saturday over fourth-seeded Sullivan.

Top-seeded Borgia (14-3) played third-seeded Union (13-10) in the district championship game Tuesday night.

Borgia defeated Union 5-0 and will play in the sectional round Tuesday, Nov. 6.

The Wildcats defeated second-seeded Warrenton Monday, 1-0.

The district winner advances to the Class 2 sectional round Tuesday, Nov. 6, against either Rolla or Helias.

Borgia’s game against St. Clair ended when Jack Conroy scored on a penalty kick, putting the 10-goal mercy rule into effect.

“Borgia has a good soccer team. They have a chance to go far in the postseason,” said St. Clair Head Coach Ted Koenigsfeld. “Playing in this game was a learning experience for our team. Every team takes a knock like that once in a while. We’ll get better from it.”

Jake Erwin, Jack Hellebusch and Zach Schweissguth each netted two goals in the contest. Hellebusch also had an assist.

Kevin Birk, Zac Howell and Adam Meyer also scored. Birk also had two assists.

Jordan Miller and Ben Kang both had two assists.

Ryan Jones and Andrew Beckerman both had one assist.

“We started to play some wall passes, and that allowed us to advance the ball through defensive traffic and gave us some shot opportunities,” Kang said.

Kelly Mauntel registered the shutout in goal, collecting one save.

Reno Jones was in goal for St. Clair. He played every minute of every game in goal this season for the Bulldogs.

“St. Clair played with a lot of class and heart,” Kang said. “Ted has done an incredible job over there. They kept a high energy throughout the game and contested every possession. We definitely experienced a lot of pressure every time we had the ball.”

St. Clair had just two seniors on the roster, Jacob Meisel and Chris Kahlenbeck.

“Jacob and Chris both were huge parts of our team. They helped build our program to what it is today,” Koenigsfeld said. “I consider the season we had a success. We played a lot of good soccer. I wish we would have had a few more wins. When you have a team as young as ours, you’re going to have some growing pains. Our kids haven’t played a lot of soccer, but the experience they got this year should only help them in the future.”